Biographies & Memoirs

Introduction
Ten Minutes from Normal
by Karen Hughes
The rhythmic rocking of the train felt unnatural, slow and lethargic, a marked contrast to the hyperactivity of the just-finished Republican National Convention. A convention is a riot of balloons, speeches, people and parties.

Tug of War, Part 3
Ten Minutes from Normal
by Karen Hughes
Jerry, always objective, even argued the positive. 'Another year at this school and Robert will have the foundation to go to any college he wants to,' he said, referring to St. Albans, the top Episcopal all-boys school our son had chosen to attend

My Life in the Kennedy White House, Part 2
A Lady, First: My Life in the Kennedy White House and the American Embassies of Paris and Rome
by Letitia Baldridge
When my father ran for Congress, I was the only one in the family who wanted to accompany him on his campaign swings to western Nebraska in the old maroon Pontiac, hoping to pick up some votes.

Pocahontas Proud
Redneck Woman: Stories from My Life
by Gretchen Wilson, Allen Rucker
Gretchen Wilson may be one of country music's hottest stars, but unlike most people living a rags-to-riches fairy tale, she doesn't play down her humble beginnings. Born to a teenage mother in southern Illinois and raised on stock car races and bar brawls

Part 3
Talking Back: ...to Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels
by Andrea Mitchell
Only two months later, on June 5, I was home watching the returns from the Democratic primary election in California when Bobby Kennedy was shot. In what seemed like an instant replay of the shock and horror of the King assassination

Prologue
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou
In the first volume of an extraordinary autobiographical series, one of the most inspiring authors of our time recalls - with candor, humor, poignancy and grace - how her journey began....

Samuel Rosenberg's Daughters, Part 2
Missing Men: A Memoir
by Joyce Johnson
A month after her death, I reluctantly spent my first day in her apartment dumping old sweaters, yellowed handkerchiefs, and ancient tea towels into plastic garbage bags. In her desk, I found bundles of old letters and papers and a collection of address

Part 2
Talking Back: ...to Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels
by Andrea Mitchell
Soon I had my own program, an hour of chamber music airing every Tuesday night at eight. Pretentiously, I called it 'Musica da Camera.' The theme was the third movement of Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances for the Lute.

Pitched Back
Every Second Counts
by Lance Armstrong, Sally Jenkins
The five-time Tour de France winner and Number 1 New York Times bestselling author returns with an inspirational account of his recent personal and professional victories and some failures and an intimate glimpse into how almost dying taught him to really

Tug of War
Ten Minutes from Normal
by Karen Hughes
'Maybe we should just move back home this summer,' I said, and the look of relief that immediately crossed his face confirmed what I had suspected, what my husband still denies, but that all our friends believe - that he deeply missed Texas and was ready

Preface
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
by Barack Obama
In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father

Chapter 1
The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton
by Joe Klein
Much has been written about Clinton, but The Natural is the first work to cut through the gossip, scandals, media hype, and emotional turbulence that Clinton always engendered, to step back and rationally analyze the eight years of his tenure

Chapter One
Shattered Dreams; My Life as a Polygamist's Wife
by Irene Spencer
Irene Spencer did as she felt God commanded in marrying her brother-in-law Verlan LeBaron, becoming his second wife. When the government raided the fundamentalist, polygamous Mormon village of Short Creek, Arizona, Irene and her family fled to Verlan's

Raising an Arab Father in America
The Language of Baklava
by Diana Abu-Jaber
Diana Abu-Jaber's vibrant, humorous memoir weaves together stories of being raised by a food-obsessed Jordanian father with tales of Lake Ontario shish kabob cookouts and goat stew feasts under Bedouin tents in the desert. These sensuously evoked repasts,

Bollywood Dreams
King of Bollywood: Shah Rukh Khan and the Seductive World of Indian Cinema
by Anupama Chopra
Here is the astonishing true story of Bollywood, a sweeping portrait about a country finding its identity, a movie industry that changed the face of India, and one man's struggle to become a star.

Corn Mother: Genealogies
Tori Amos: Piece by Piece
by Tori Amos, Ann Powers
Tori Amos: Piece by Piece is a firsthand account of the most intricate and intimate details of Amos's life as both a private individual and a very public performing musician. In passionate and informative prose, Amos explains how her songs come to her

Chapter 2
The Royals
by Kitty Kelley
They are the most chronicled family on the face of the globe. Their every move attracts headlines. Scores of books have tried and failed to penetrate the royal facade. Now Kitty Kelley has gone behind palace walls to provide the first three-dimensional

Ye Nob Hill Inn
The Real Animal House: The Awesomely Depraved Saga of the Fraternity That Inspired the Movie
by Chris Miller
Thirty years after Animal House showed the world the meaning of toga, Chris Miller, a.k.a Pinto, takes us back to a different world. A world where a legendary frat brother really might go to a sorority house for a sympathy date after reading an obituary.

Part 1
The Gospel Side of Elvis
by Joe Moscheo
The Gospel Side of Elvis is a rarely explored aspect of this American icon and one that reveals so much about the Elvis so many have yet to discover.

A House Can Hurt, a Home Can Heal
Even the Stars Look Lonesome
by Maya Angelou
I have written of the black American experience, which I know intimately. I am always talking about the human condition in general and about society in particular. What it is like to be human, and American, what makes us weep, what makes us fall